Road is unsuitable for a new school

Swindon Borough Councillors and officers seem to have once again deluded themselves into believing that a thoroughly bad idea is in fact a good one.

Local residents believe that the business case for the proposed school at the Croft is deeply flawed.

The so-called public consultation process for this proposal has been a complete sham. Residents have been prevented from presenting their case and findings to SBC, making it look like the proposal was a fait accompli from the beginning.

It has recently come to light that contract arrangements for building works have already been put in place, well before the planning application has even been considered.

The so called traffic assessment for the proposed scheme, which concludes that there are no issues concerning the impact of the proposed school on the surrounding area is also considered deeply flawed and quite frankly laughable.

It should be rejected out of hand and, if it were me, I would ask for my money back.

It was made by people with little or no knowledge of the local area and created at a time when the Croft site has been effectively closed down while building work takes place on the new football hub at the site.

The football hub is not due to open untill later this year. The report takes no account of the unadopted section of Marlborough Lane which is the actual artery leading to the Croft site.

Marlborough Lane is already over used and unfit for purpose as it stands. Additional extra traffic from the proposed school on top of the football hub, the sports centre, the residents of the lane, the trade vehicles to the Marriott Hotel, the Children’s Centre, the taxi drivers and other road users who already use the Croft facilities as a free car park for Old Town and for visiting local businesses will make it even more dangerous than it is already.

The proposal will also impact adversely on local businesses like Nationwide, Intel and the Marriot Hotel and the already congested cul-de-sac enclave of Hesketh Crescent, St Margarets Road, Winnifred Street and Evelyn Street, as well as the wider environment of Old Town and beyond.

To my knowledge, the only bidder for the proposed new school is King William Street School in Old Town, in conjunction with the Bristol Diocese of the Church of England.

Why is it that nobody else is jumping up and down with excitement at its potential?

King William Street seem to be suggesting running their operation as a split site school.

This practice is itself highly questionable and, if it came to pass, would likely prove both difficult to manage and financially costly.

Why does SBC and King William Street School therefore not look for a more creative and credible solution?

How about SBC offering a land swap deal to the Stagecoach bus company.

The bus company depot currently occupies land adjacent to King William Street School.

If SBC offered Stagecoach suitable land, away from its current location next to a school in a built-up residential area ,this would both provide Stagecoach with a more suitable location for its purposes and free up the space for King William Street School to expand in its existing location, thus avoiding the need to build on the already over stressed Croft site at all.

David Bent Marlborough Lane, Swindon

Where are pupils?

Following the recent article (Swindon Advertiser 18 07 2011) I would be interested to learn on what the council is basing its forecasts for the future need for primary school places?

The temporary school at the Croft site was provided for up to 70 children and opened in September 2010.

When the school closed in July 2011 it had 15 pupils.

The cost of the building itself is given as £500,00 and the running costs for the past year are estimated as about this much again.

Even given the intention to reuse the building in other areas in the town, this seems an unreasonable waste of money.

These children could have been accommodated at other schools at a total transport cost to the borough of around £17,000.

This would have left almost £1m free of use for improvements in other schools.

If the council’s future forecast is anything like as accurate as those used for the temporary school, can we place any reliance on its figure?

There are currently free places at Lethbridge School, King William Street and several others in the area.

Numbers available currently indicate that there is a surplus of school places in Old Town even without the new Wichelstowe School, which will provide another 420 places.

The need for another 500 places within 10 years is presumably spread throughout the whole of Swindon and not just in the Old Town area.

The current shortage of school places would appear to be in North Swindon.

Given the large developments in that area this is not surprising.

Perhaps a more sensible solution would be to put a new school where it is most needed?

Mr Renard’s comment that failure to provide more schools will lead to traffic chaos is frankly laughable, when their current plan for the new Old Town school at Croft has it sited in a cul-de-sac, with only one planned exit on to Marlborough Road.

This is a recipe for disaster and is a guaranteed route to chaos.

T Hayward Winifred Street Swindon

Kept in the dark

Here we go again, The Emperor’s New Clothes syndrome. Does Swindon Council really think we are going to fall for the pitiful excuse that we are saving electricity by turning West Swindon (and other areas) into zones of darkness?

I recall not so long ago being told we were on a “trial” for fortnightly refuse collections, and being given a wheelie bin, without consent. Our opinions were never sought about the “trial”, and look where that ended up – the council tried to make us believe this was “progress.”

Now we are told – quoted in the Advertiser by one of our Council members that it is also a “trial”?

Before I expire laughing can I thank the taxi driver who commented how awful it is without the lighting on all these roads in West Swindon.

J Hill Grosmont Drive Swindon

Historical links

Frances Bevan's historical articles in your paper are always of interest.

Two of her recent articles on consecutive days, on seemingly diverse subjects surprisingly had a connection.

In the Thursday, July 14 paper there was a small item about a royal navy seaman J M Scutts, who lived locally and had been presented with a silver cigarette case, by grateful neighbours to commemorate his part in the naval battle which resulted in the sinking of the German battleship Bismark in the Atlantic.

This gentleman, who was serving on the Prince of Wales battleship later in the war survived his ship being sunk in the Far East.

He also survived several incarcerations in Japanese POW camps after being captured.

The following evening’s paper of July 15 had an article about the history of Southbrook Farm and its farmhouse which opened as a pub in 1956.

What is the connection between the two articles?

The gentleman Jack Scutts, who survived the war, later met and married Dorothy Hull, who was the daughter of the family who lived in Southbrook farmhouse.

When the Souhbrook Inn opened in 1956 Jack and Dorothy were the first licensees, they ran the pub until 1988 when they retired.

Jack died in 2007 but his daughter Pat who lives in Swindon still has the treasured cigarette case.

RL Ferris Sandown Avenue Swindon